In the Kitchen today…

In the Kitchen today…

This wholly comforting soup fed the two of us for an entire week of lunches and dinners. It uses a leftover roasted turkey carcass, but could use 1 large or 2 small chicken carcasses just as well. The ingredients are classic and wonderfully basic (onion, carrot, celery, thyme, parsley, bay), making for a very clear, gentle broth (and an affordable soup). And proportionally, it makes a lot of broth, perfect for soaking up with hearty bread.

In the broth stage, I added 1 Tablespoon juniper berries (because I did not have bay leaf) and 1 Tablespoon pink peppercorns to the simmering water. To the soup itself, I added 2 cloves fresh grated garlic, 3 teaspoons Chicken Better Than Bouillon, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes. And because there was not quite enough turkey left on the bones, I supplemented the protein with leftover roasted chicken.

Waters calls for sautéing the kale in butter (and, optionally, garlic and red pepper flakes) before adding it to the soup. I chose to add the fresh kale right into the soup, letting it cook gently in the heat of the broth right before serving, and then adding the optional garlic and red pepper flakes also directly to the soup. This cuts a step (and another dirty pan) and keeps the kale fresher and more vibrant in color for the bowl. And each time I reheated some soup (in a smaller pot) for a meal, I added a handful of fresh kale.

Lastly, she does not specify the amount of salt; I used 2 teaspoons for the whole pot. And for a pot, I used my orange 7-quart Cuisinart Dutch Oven.